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Particle Cannon
Particle Cannons were the standard heavy warship armament for The Royal Allegiance. History and Development Particle Cannons were first developed thousands of years before The Allegiance had acheived space flight. The technology for this was adapted from massive Forerunner beam weaponry on their homeworld of Thera. Developed only for defensive purposes, very few of these incredibly large cannons were ever produced. Their usage was heavily dependant on the availibility of huge power sources; this resulted in the near-symbiotic relationship between Particle Cannons and Zero-Point Energy generators. The few cannons that were produced were immobile and largely useless in any real combat, though they never fired a shot in anger. As the Allegiance made it into space at around 8,000 BCE, Particle Cannons turned from abstract, unisable weapons into potent cannons actually able to be applied to combat situations. The first warships were literally built around these cannons. They required so much energy that, when fired, the lights on the Bridge itself would flicker and consoles would flash. On lower decks and less vital areas of the vessel, power would be lost to every system, even artificial gravity. That was how large the energy requirement of these cannons were. Later vessels were equipped with advanced power management systems to keep all vital systems running when the main cannon was fired, but the problem was never really solved until 2480. Up until this time, all Allegiance vessels had been powered by nuclear fusion reactors. However, these severely restricted warship development; for instance, it was impossible for a ship to mount any more than one Particle Cannon, and even this was a stretch at times. However, with the introduction of the Marchestra-class in 2480, a more viable power source was sought. Zero-Point generators had been used for centuries to produce near-limitless amounts of power- but these generators were at times hundreds of kilometres across, only found powering planets or the largest of space installations. The 72km-long Marchestra-class presented a problem. It was impossible for such a large vessel to be powered by nuclear fusion- it was simply too big. Instead, in 2413, research and development begun on miniturisation of a zero-point generator to sufficient sizes that the massive Marchestra-class could be fuelled by one. The result came in 2471 when the final design was perfected, and the Marchestras went into production. These gargantuan vessels played an important role in the devastating Reformation War. This miniturisation paved the way for a cascade of developlments and changes- starship technology and developlemt grew more in the fifty years following this than in the previous two centuries combined. It was as if the flood barrier had been opened; by 2552 all Allegiance vessels save the smallest were powered by Zero-point energy. This new energy breakthrough allowed for a quantum leap in starship design; ship shield, engine and weaponry power grew exponentially. One of the most important consequences was the mass-use of Particle Cannons; many ships mounted three or more heavy Particle Cannons, restricted only by the size of the vessel. As miniturisation accelerated, by 2733 every Allegiance military or civillian vessel was powered by Zero-point energy. By...(to be continued...) Technology Usage See Also *Zero-Point Energy